Hatred was given an 18 certificate by the Games Rating Authority on Friday, meaning it can now be sold in the UK, the Times reported on Saturday 23 May.

The GRA's website says the 18 PEGI certificate is given to games featuring gameplay that "can be classed as the depictions of violence that would make the viewer feel a sense of revulsion".

In Hatred players are given weapons including a flamethrower and a shotgun to kill unarmed civilians and police.

In the trailer for Hatred the main character, known as the Antagonist, shoots a man in the head with a shotgun before putting a gun in a woman's mouth and pulling the trigger.

He says: "No life is worth saving. I will put in a grave as many as I can. My genocide crusade begins."

Adam Simmonds, the police and crime commissioner for Northamptonshire, told the Times that it was an outrage that the game had been approved for sale.

"We say that adults should be allowed to play these types of game and then we are shocked when children act them out in the playground with real weapons," he said.

On its website, the Polish creator of Hatred, Destructive Creations, has defended the game as well as urged users "not to try this at home".

"You may ask is: why do they do this? These days, when a lot of games are heading to be polite, colourful, politically correct… we wanted to create something against trends. It is a game about killing people [but] the player [must] ask himself what can push [a] human being to mass murder," the creators write on their website.

The game was certified for sale in the US earlier this year where it was only the second game in 20 years to attract the highest age rating dished out by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ERSB).